Uconn Quotes

Opening Statement:
"When you lose as a team, I told the team this, it comes down to head coaching. This loss is on me. It was my responsibility to do everything to win this game and we didn't. We had every opportunity. The defense played a great game; they didn't allow an offensive touchdown. They gave us every opportunity on field position and gave us a chance to play plays. It's disappointing that we didn't. Tim Boyle played exceptional game for a true freshman. He made a couple of throws early that could have been the difference in the game. If our guys make those catches, it's a different game. I'm proud of their effort and energy, but we have to make those plays to win this football game. I'm disappointed in my execution on the last drive of the game. We were put in a position to move the ball down the field and get a field goal. I hesitated making a call and we didn't get it in on time. That's on me. I am man enough to say what I did right and what I did wrong. We'll get that corrected, there's no hiding from any of that. We have to come back as a football team and evaluate this film. There's no right answer. There's no reinventing anything. We have to play better. I wish I was standing here saying we did execute. I told our team there's not much we're going to change from a format standpoint. We came out and ran the football and established the run. I thought we ran it well. I thought Tim stepped up and showed maturity and poise. He made some throws and some decisions that were pretty good for a true freshman. I think we'll keep moving forward with him and keep getting better."

On the play of the wide receivers after couple of big drops:
"We put them in positions in practice to make those plays under pressure as much as possible. Some of those players have made those plays before. Those young receivers have to learn how to make those players. I told them that we can't afford for them to make a mistake in a game to learn a lesson. You have to learn from the game, not just from your experience. You have to learn from the game and how it's played against different looks. We could run that play ten times and get ten different looks. That's football. That's playing wide receiver. That's what it comes down to."

On the run game not being as strong in the second half:
"They stayed in some cover two coverages that still tried to take away the pass and twisted some things up on the inside that put some pressure on the edges for us. Honestly, that's something we haven't handled the past few games. We didn't run the ball as well in the second half as we would have liked. I tried to mix it up inside and out. I felt at the end Tim was throwing pretty well. I wanted to get the ball a little more to Geremy Davis and our playmakers."

"It was a good game. I think we played pretty well. It came down to a couple different plays and we didn't come through. I felt pretty comfortable, wasn't really rattled that much. We didn't execute as well as planned. It was a good fight by USF, but we just came up short."

Throws:
"I was a little anxious, capable of making throws, once I got the jitters out, I felt more comfortable and I'm past that now. I think I'll be good next time."

Final Drive:
"We had a good play, thought Coach was going to call a time-out, just a little bit of miscommunication that will get worked out."

"I compare it to golf, when you are in the zone and you hit the ball well. Nice to be able to help out the team whenever I can, telling them where the ball is going to drop."

USF Quotes

USF Head Coach Willie Taggart

Emotions of two straight wins.
"It feels good, it feels good seeing our guys fighting through a tough football game. It's good to be 2-0 in the conference and just getting some confidence and improving as a football team. Who would have thought after we were 0-4 that we would turn it around? I think it's great that our guys stand for each other and play together, that's what you want to see. We've talked about doing that since day 1 and when we do learn to do that, we can win some games."

Defensive touchdowns the past three weeks.
"Oh it's great, you know, they dropped some picks too. They'll be working on that jug machine a lot this week. We said from day 1 that we would lean on our defense and we're doing it. What's great to see is that early in the year when we were turning the ball over for touchdowns, I told our defense, you know it's okay for us to do that too. They've been doing it on us, and the last three weeks we've been doing it. We practice that, scooping and scoring, and it's paying off for us."

What did you see on your offense's last possession.
"We finally got some first downs, we moved the ball a little better in the second half. We had some nice execution, nice pass protection and if Bobby gets some time, he can throw the football pretty well. I thought Bobby was rushing things early on because he was so worried about the rush, but when he had some time he was more comfortable. He stayed in there sometimes and made some good throws for us."

USF Players

Marvin Kloss, KickerTalk about the game-winning kick.
"It was the first one in my career here at USF and it felt good. I wouldn't really count it as a game-winner because we still had some time to play but it did give us the go-ahead. It felt good to contribute to this team like I try to do every week to help them get a "W"."

What was the surface like for kicking?
"It was tough, I ended up switching cleats on my clamp foot because my first couple of kick-offs I was slipping. It got worse as the game went on, but luckily the equipment manager gave me some screw-in cleats which helped a lot, especially mentally when you know you can go through the same routine kicking and not worry about slipping."

Was there pressure with that kick?
"I'm nervous every time I go out there really but it didn't have the desperate "make it or we lose" feel. The offense was struggling and it was really a defensive game, so a couple coaches and players came up to me and said it might come down to a kick. At the time, I didn't think it would but I'm happy it did so I could contribute in getting this win.

Aaron Lynch, Defensive LinemanOn having two straight wins.
"I feel great about it, being 2-0 in the conference. We started 0-4 and so not a lot of people had trust in us and didn't think we'd be able to do it. We had to step it up because being 0-4 won't get you anywhere, so we got that first win. When you get that first win, every other win will come because after a win, you work harder at practice because if you lose, you're down. But if you win, you're pumped up, and so we can practice like winners at practice."

On defense down the stretch and dropped picks.
"An interception gives us the ball, but they don't gain any yards and our defense was so dominant that we can have missed opportunities on dropped interceptions because our front seven lineman and linebackers are going to give it their all every single play. Those dropped interceptions don't mean anything, because we would just come back and stop them over and over."

Last time you returned a fumble for TD?
"Senior year of high school. We put the pressure on the quarterback, Ryan Givens comes up and smacks him, and I'm looking in the air for it and I see it go into the offensive lineman's arms and I'm like darn-it. But he trips up and fumbles it, and I was like "This is all me!". So then I just took it to the endzone and celebrated."